The Palladium Book of Weapons and Castles of the Orient

In 1981, Palladium published Matthew Balent's The Palladium Book of Weapons & Armor,a book that outlined medieval military gear that could be used by a dungeon master. Balent provided three more books for Palladium, including The Palladium Book of Weapons and Castles of the Orient, published in 1984 as a 48-page softcover book with illustrations by Michael Kucharski, Ed Kwiatkowski, and Kevin Siembieda.

In Issue 71 of Space Gamer, William Barton commented that "For players of Oriental games such as Bushido or Land of the Rising Sun who want a great deal of detail, this book should prove most valuable. For others with only a passing interest, it probably isn't worth the investment."^[1]

In Issue 37 of Abyss, Jon Schuller noted that this book had the same pros and cons as other books in this series. On the plus side, Schuller thought "that it provides a great deal of information of weapons and armor of the medieval east." But Schuller found the weapon sketches "rather clumsy" and also noted "What they have here is great, but I'd really like to see more text and information about fighting techniques and the nature of castles and battles in the Orient." Despite this, Schuller concluded, "I can definitely recommend Weapons and Castles of the Orient as a useful background campaign for role-playing and war gaming, especially if your playing style makes personal combat and equipment an important part of your campaign." ^[3]